Time Flies
It was ten years ago today—on March 12, 2014—that you first started hearing my voice over the KXEL microphone. The station was then owned by Woodward Communications, and then-station manager Bill Wells—who I had known for decades from his positions in Des Moines radio—asked if I would consider filling in since the morning host at the time was going to be out for a few weeks for surgery.
At the time, I was starting a weekly syndicated radio program, the “IowaWatch Connection,” which became the “Iowa Business Report”…and getting set to roll out the weekday “Iowa Almanac” to a network of stations across Iowa. And despite the 3 a.m. wake-up call, I thought it might be fun to get back into the live chair after decades away.
That three weeks of hosting the morning program led to filling in doing newscasts and more morning work. NRG Media, KXEL’s current owner, bought the station in December of 2014…and I’ve been here all day, every day, ever since in a variety of roles.
It’s been a very quick 10 years.
A lot was different in the world a decade ago. Barack Obama was president, and Terry Branstad was Iowa’s governor. We were still learning about something now ironically named “social media”…Twitter had only been around for 8 years, Instagram for half that time. Donald Trump hosted a top-rated reality TV program. We weren’t thinking about COVID…but instead, ebola. Russia annexed Crimea, a revolution led to a free Ukraine, and Hamas was dropping bombs on Israel.
Alright, perhaps sadly some things are not different.
Radio control rooms in 2014 were different than when I first stepped into one in 1980. We didn’t have computers back then, and news releases came in the mail. Needless to say, there was a bit of a learning curve running a news/talk station and its automation system tied to satellite programming.
But something that was not different…and has stayed the same during the century of radio in this country, not just my time in it…is the connection folks behind a microphone have with their audience. I may be sitting in a room alone, talking into something that looks like a tin can…but there are people on the other end, and it’s serving the needs of those people that has always guided successful radio stations. We hope we’re holding up our end of that relationship.
Ten years…perhaps not much in the life of a legendary station that has been around for nearly 82 years. How much longer for me here? Well, that has something to do with you and your response, which has always been gratifying…it has a lot to do with the people who run the station…but ultimately, it’s up to God to determine the plan.
I had not really thought about it at the time, but I doubt I would have figured we’d be marking 10 years together today.
But if you’re willing to keep going, I am.
